Health and Fitness July 2013

[Twins' Mom]

Managed 11,000 steps yesterday and 14 stairs - a high point for me. Dh agreed we will start WW on Sunday with the 1:15 meeting.

[Nancy]

Time to think about my ex. plan for today. I can watch one of my shows and get on the ex. bike done.

Done on Fri. as well.

[Twins' Mom]

3,200 steps and 5 stairs walking ddogs this morning. Got back in just as the rain started again; glad I didn't try to walk longer.

[Harriet]

I'm going to lay off the whole low-carb thing a while. Have had small portions of 3 different fruits for brunch: apple, blueberry, peach.

Rain - yes, it has kept us from so much. Much less activity happening in general.

[Cowinkie]

Same with the heat Harriet...

I'm still eating well, however I have had several diet sodas in the past 4-5 days.
Have slept 4 nights in a row without meds....that's the longest I can remember in a long time...like maybe 5 years. It's gotta have something to do with the sugar as not eating any is the only thing I have changed in my world. Too bad my weight isn't following along, but I have a Dr's appointment coming up on Tue. We'll see what she is going to do then.

[Harriet]

HRH got all his blood work results back in hard copy today through the mail. Doctor gave current result and previous result 4 months ago. This was a big part of HRH's vegan/vegetarian experiment.

Out of 9 markers, all 9 were improved. Strangely, the most improved were his B-12 and D levels, even though he changed nothing about those supplements. HRH says that when the digestive system's workload is eased, the body can be freed up to heal in other ways, and, sure, I firmly believe periods of low calorie consumption achieve that. I just never thought that avoiding animal products to ease the workload could do it, too. In fact, I wondered if his B-12, specifically, might fare badly. Instead, it's great - the best he's had since they started checking. Vitamin D is suddenly WAY better - almost reaching the dr's goal, and again, the best since they started checking.

Another weight off my mind is that his thyroid TSH improved. I had worried that since he'd started getting more of his protein from soy, it might have a negative effect, but it didn't.

Although all 5 lipids are improved, and his total cholesterol is now in the normal range, the least improved marker was the HDL - one point, almost negligible. So he remains as confused as I am about how to improve HDL. He says if vegan eating for as much percentage of the time as he's done won't improve it, what will? At least his didn't get worse as other markers got better, the way mine did.

He want's to know if I'm happy and of course I am. BIG happy. He says, "Well, this was a lot of work."

[Ivy]

I walked 20 min. on a 1/2-mile round-trip with grandson-almost-10. I was happy to get out, smell fragrances and not get asthma.

I'm having a difficulty eating "healthy" with the grandsons here. After lunch, I ate a butter horn with margarine on it. At least I've stayed out of the Sun Chips and Lays Chips today! But then, DH, and the 2 grandsons came home, also, with crumb cake! I just don't know what to DO!

But I'm writing everything down, they leave the 14th and 2 come back the 20th. Honestly, I'll try harder, especially the week we're kid-free, too. I can't have anymore Lbs. sneaking up on me. I'm down to 2 pairs of jeans, which fit and then 6 - 8 knit pants and 1 cords pair of pants. It's good to have clothes, which still look good on me, but I DO feel "fat" and sorta poured into them.

[Lynlee]

Harriet - my HDL is 2.4 - "highest pdoc had seen" . I put it down to seeds - chia, buckwheet, quinoa daily. Though I have not sought to check that out. It was that reading mid 2009 and 2012. Now you have me wondering just when I started seed cereals breakfasts.. I'n not sure pathologist thought that high was a good thing as he was calling it high, but its meant to somewhat cancel out my 5.5 cholesterol

[Harriet]

Well, Lynlee, I am smiling because you and I have a translation gap again - that's okay, we can figure it out. I found this site for a helpful translation and charts to make the connection. Also it gives Triglycerides, LDL and HDL translations.

Australia and Canada measure in millimoles of cholesterol per litre of blood, and the US measures in milligrams (mg) of cholesterol per deciliter of blood.

That means (for "total") you have a borderline of 5.2 and we have a borderline of 200.

Yes, it seems like you have a great HDL at more than 2. Good for you. HRH has just now barely squiggled his HDL over the general Poor/Better line for US men, at 40. Mine skips all around in the 50s, which is above the general Poor/better line for women. However, neither one of our numbers are good enough for our doctor's big hospital/health outfit, which believes HDL level should be higher.

It would be interesting to me to find a site that actually tells for sure what, for instance, your HDL number would be here. Because you would probably be one person who would finally make my doctor happy!

All this being said, there's a lot of discussion now that any and all cholesterol facts may not be as important as we have believed they are - that cholesterol is just not the indicator of heart health we used to believe.

Twins' Mom, I meant to say to you that 11,000 steps is terrif!

[Nancy]

There are carbs; and then there are carbs. fruit carbs are okay; grain ones not so much. I need to focus on some fruit ones this week.

Heading to the living room to watch my garden show and get on the ex. bike.